I think a critical point here is that the tone seems to me like it's set up for super low tunings, and sounds a bit too smooth in E standard. Could handle a bit more dirt with E standard.
Isn’t that the point of the video though? He’s not necessarily making the video for it to sound good because that wouldn’t be a fair comparison. That would be like saying “let’s compare this apple to that apple but I’ve modified the other apple to make it taste better anyway”.
Oh yeah Higher tunings thrive on dirtier, gnarlier production. The reason why a lot of modern metal sounds so clean is because the tuning is so low that you wouldn't be able to hear it on otherwise dirtier production.
IIRC in Mick's behind the scenes of making Doom 2016, he discussed starting in E, then got a 7 string, then thought he needed lower... So found a 9 string. Dude's a madman
Rip & Tear actually reminds me of early thrash which does work considering a lot of Ultimate Doom’s soundtrack was midi versions of popular thrash, groove, and grunge before ‘93
I know theyre not "modern metal," but Opeth (when they were still death metal at least) record in E standard. The album Deliverance is a great showcase of how heavy standard tuning can be, Master's Apprentices in particular a favourite of mine.
A lot of heaviness comes from the dissonance of the locrian scale and the Byzantine scale which are used a heck of a lot in metal so the interval between notes, these scales have a lot of semitone intervals compared to more traditional music
Same with a lot of DImmu Borgir's work. Honestly, I think they leave more room in the mix for the bass than modern mega-drop-tuned bands do, and you end up with something super heavy without really needing to detune at all. For my own stuff, you can call it laziness (it is), but I feel like I have the most fun and write the heaviest/coolest riffs when I'm hovering around drop D. No long scale lengths, hyper thick and hard to find strings, super tight pickups, or crazy eq-ing needed. Just a bone-stock HSS Strat with 10s - so simple lol
Great pick. I love the closing section of Deliverance's title track, where the one guitar plays a high ringing melodic riff, and the rest of the band plays a low heavy syncopated riff. I think having the contrast in pitch and rhythm makes the lower part feel even heavier.
@@harku123 tbh imo most of opeths "heaviness" isn't the same heavy as those bands. It's more of an evil ot dissonant type sound. Dropping the moors riffs won't make it that much heavier to me for example. But masters apprentice on the other hand is a riff that gets "heavier" when tuned lower since it's closer to how other bands make "heavy"
@@AI-ke9pp I agree, if you have riffs that incorporate chords or just multiple strings used simultaneously, it gets mushy at lower tunings but single string riffs benefit a lot from low tuning which is where meshuggah gets it right in that sense. Another way music can be heavy is for it to be groovy and low rumbling or bassy. Masters apprentice would be pretty cool at a lower tuning I'm sure just like you said, the moor is so chord heavy and dissonant that running it lower than maybe drop d or c would only be detrimental.
Ive never subscribed to the idea that lower = heavier, I’ve always believed that having a higher tuning lets you *hear* the riffs better, and that can make a lot of songs heavy on it’s own
depends on how the riff is written. A Plague, Doomsday, and even Rip & Tear all made it work, but stuff like Holy Roller and the loathe riff i cant remember the name of just...needs the lower tuning for that riff to sound "good". Not saying it sounds bad, infact it sounds pretty good! Just...better lower.
Standard and Drop D have a cut and punch that you absolutely don't get in lower tunings, for example "Painkiller" by Judas Priest. I often play baritone and bass vi, but I'll never give up regular guitars in standard-ish tunings like Eb standard and Drop D. Also worth trying is C# standard or C standard with your regular string set on your normal scale guitar (I think of it as "Iommi/Pike tuning"). Very loose fretboard, sounds cool, makes you play differently.
Can confirm, the tunings I use most frequently are Eb standard, Drop C#, and C# standard, and the amount of versatility I get with just those three tunings is amazing
I'd also argue that the quintessential huge, heavy power chord (think Rammstein) sounds best in Drop C and up. Anything lower and you start to lose the clarity and note separation, and the impact diminishes.
Need a full veersion of Rip and Tear. NOW!!! My ears, after listening to that tuning cannot gloss over the fact that how cool, and how different it sounds! I would really appreciate a full version of that, as it sounds so damn cool!
The technique to be heavy in E is a little different. A lot of those songs treat their low strings like a bass player would, really hammering them with no palm muting. E doesn't really give the same kind of punch, it needs palm muting and chords to be heavy.
So the reason these all have such a different vibes is because of the physics of harmonics. I can’t remember the specific term but once you reach a certain depth chords start to sound less like chords and more like clashing single notes. And that’s a key part of a lot of the super low tuned modern riffs, playing them higher literally changes the way we perceive the relationship between the notes.
to me, the riffs work in their tunings and not E standard because they're built around having those lower notes - they jump up to higher strings for power chords, and that gives it a clearer sound, rather than being muddy if they'd played like it was in E standard. i think Rip & Tear works better than Carcosa because it's tuned higher originally. for a different framing - imagine Metallica's "The Shortest Straw" on a 9 string versus Rob Scallon's "Envy" on a 6 string. the first ends up being muddier than an amateur rugby field after it's rained and still played the match, while the second lacks the oomph of the low notes and sounds hollow by comparison. interesting experiment, all in all
Sometimes when we discuss tone we can get caught up in the nuances(gain level/amp type/etc) as opposed to using the word in the context of speech. Something like this really shows that the bright/sharp sound of standard really pushes those power/thrash metal vibes while the same riffs in the lower tunings evoke groove/percussive feelings. Context matters. Awesome work!
I still say C# standard sounds best to my ear, and Sabbath is heavy. Also, so much of the Lamb of God stuff is in drop D, so "heavy" isn't all about tuning.
LoG has some of the nastiest and sickest riff and it's all in the groove and effects/pedals/cabinets/speakers. Get a good sounding sound and play that shit tight and right, it fucks in all the right ways.
My favorite is 7 string standard but half step down (BbEbAbDbGbBbEb), because it lends itself to insanely heavy riffs, is useful for choruses (especially in more exotic keys like Db or Ab)-yet is not so low as to be muddy. The 8 string extension of this CAN also be useful (especially if you are using the guitar for low end and synths/keyboards for the middle and high end), however downtuning alone doesn’t make riffs heavier. Clever use of music theory, especially combining rhythmic emphasis with dissonant notes does add A LOT of heaviness to riffs though (nu metal (and some heavier djent/prog-metal like Meshuggah) does this REALLY well by building riffs around implied atonal chord progressions)…
I'm a single coil Tele player who mostly plays between E standard to Drop D. I think E standard tuning for guitar is somewhat arbitrary and lower tunings bring out tonal character out of the instrument that seems impossible in E standard. It is no wonder that 60s rock / blues rock / psychedelic music used at least Eb or D. The deeper tuning with distortion sounds better most of the time, not just in metal. People like deep sounds. E standard is best for clinky or more focused tones, like playing fast chords or funky riffs with clarity and definition (RATM would be a perfect example for not-so-downtuned, heavy but funky riffage).
When I played a lot more (need to pick it back up), I wrote a lot of my own stuff. Occasionally I'd use drop C, maybe drop B like Mark Tremonti does. Typically though, I stayed in drop D or standard minus half a step. Always sounded awesome, intricate, and heavy. This was a good video. Thank you.
Thanks, now I have to admit I'm old af. I couldn't give less of a shit about most of the bands the riffs are from, yet these E Standard versions make me suddenly want to listen to those songs.
It sounds good but different. It has a slight different character. If I play in E standard, I change the tone settings on my amp or on my equalizer and reduce the higher frequencies and push the lower frequencies, depending what song it is. I like to be versatile and some guitar tunings can be very inspiring to try out different ideas. A tuning in g-g-d-g-b-b was something I tryed for some time...
I normally tune in Drop B, but recently have been coming back to E standard and D standard with some of my guitars. It's good to change tunings and practice and experiment with various tunings. IMHO
Really cool video. I'm reminded of a death metal guitarist who's name escapes me saying that for him, heaviness is in the harshness of the guitar not in the register. That aggression you hear in the higher regesters is a big part of why I think some classic metal still hits hard. That being said, I do love me some chonky low tuned riffs.
My theory (okay not mine but I agree) is that sound at different frequencies is experienced and perceived differently. Related idea: percussion is just regular sounds on a very, very long timescale.
Higher tunings at least to me have more attack and more clarity than lower ones where as lower ones sound bigger and I guess you might say more grounded? A bit like you said a good riff is a good riff no matter the tuning but the right tuning can augment its best qualities and make it the best it can be.
I have a guitar which allows me to change tunings on the fly electronically (Peavey AT-200). I come up with riffs in E standard, then when I find one I like, I experiment with different drop tunings to see how it feels.
I've been using E Standard for Drone-Doom Metal for years. I use a lot of inverted 5th chords, and roll the tone knob way back. Use a Big Muff or EQD Acapulco Gold, too.
I discovered that E tuning creates open chords in the A minor/C major scales, which correspond to the white keys on the piano. Just like how it doesn’t make sense to only play the white keys for every song, it’s not practical to stay in tinny E tuning and never go lower (one or two steps maximum: anything lower loses tonality)
I like to try and still write really heavy riffs in E standard and am proud of some of the ones I've had. Some of my favourite bands that are very heavy use E, and i have a fondness for it for that. I also just prefer to be in E for all other styles too
I played through the entire DOOM franchise for the first time ever this October, and I've always thought the soundtracks of each game were something of greatness on its own, but actually playing the game with the music behind it? Incredible. 10/10 would recommend. Fantastic video, cool hearing them in this tuning.
2:30 Tune it to C standard or C# and it kinda somewhat sounds like a Bolt Thrower song. 3:24 Add some gallops in there and it sounds like a Testament song.
I don’t know any of these bands or songs but that made this video that much better for me lol. It really just sounds like a collection of riffs in standard tuning. Nothing sounds wrong or off.
Always odd to see some stuff in different tunings, though yeah specific riff made for it's og tuning kinda always usually sounds more fitting. Now there's E0 tuned 42" sub-bass guitar, that would be fun to see.
These all sounded cool. More bass on these tracks might be able to account for the "missing" low end that is naturally present on the original recordings. Also, maybe tuning down would still be cool, just a full step instead of 55 steps.
When I’m lazy I just play riffs I want to learn in e standard or drop d and I feel no different. And when I make music with my friend we play in e most of the time despite me owning a 7 and 8 string guitar. E is fun!
Love your vids Pete! I've gotten into playing some metal recently, and all I've got's just a shitty single coil Stratocaster that I kept on E standard at all times.
Hey man, this is a strange request, but I haven't found anyone who's done a video of it yet, so I am sure you could start a trend... Anyway, my idea is Drop E tuning, but the low E is just the standard E with the other strings all tuned up a whole step. As a guitarist you know how much different the riffing feeling is in drop tuning, it's fun to have that with the clear tone of the standard tuning range. Try it. Lighter strings might help for it, but you probably already knew that.
I had to look up the original riffs since I don't follow modern metal, and there were two, "Doomsday" and "Rip and Tear," that I thought were better in standard tuning. Very cool!
I play a lot of these in drop A on a 7-string, which is a ways off for most, and they sound great. I'm actually appreciating having E-standard available on the 7 after years of downtuning everything.
They're not super heavy overall and not really metal, but 311 has some pretty nasty, chuggy, high gain riffs, especially on Soundsystem and From Chaos. I actually don't know a song by them in any other tuning, just E standard. Ever since, i'm also very careful to test riffs and really find where they groove into. Like, Pantera started in E standard but really came into with their own unique low tuning
Because metalcore has had the most mainstream appeal in the past couple decades and the vast majority of modern metal fits into metalcore. Extreme metal bands are not as popular obviously and they tend to fit into specific subgenres rather than generally calling themselves "modern metal"
Nah. 1st one was symphonyX/dream theater-ish, 2nd one sounded like Havok around the time of Unnatural Selection, 3rd one is a weird St Anger Death magnetic mix, 4 is a sound file from the original Doom, rip&tear is Slayer-ish, icarus lives is some sort of groove metal and the whitechapel one is perhaps Mastodon-ish
The riffs I was already very acquainted with sounded a bit strange, but still good in E standard. The riffs I’ve never heard before or have only heard a few times sounded great.
great video concept--had lots of fun watching!!! And yes, tuning can definitely give a song a particular vibe--especially low tunings--that high tunings just can't seem to replicate to the same degree. Of course, I am a child of the nu-metal era where every rock and metal band was downtuning, so I am naturally predisposed to those lower notes, lol.
It seems like generally, the melodic stuff still works really well. The beginning riff of the Architects song sounds like it would fit in a power prog band's work... it's quite pretty and sounds like it's the one that works best out off the lot. The Periphery song works really well too... I can see that riff within the context of a groovy math rock/mathcore song. The songs are still generally heavy, but it feels like their genres change.
Some of those riffs can actually benefit a lot from being tuned higher, maybe not all the way up to E standard. That Carcosa riff is a perfect example, it's a really fun and catchy riff, but when you listen to the original it gets lost in the mix because there is way too much low end
honestly this video needed to have the original lick played first and then played again with the standard tuning, would've shown the contrast better I think? part 2?
I love messing around in e standard and adding thr 7th/8th string for some accents and a 2nd lower or added breakdown. I write too fast and it's kinda djent and thrash with a little melody so it works fun. drop a and D standard on the 7 and 8 string respectively
for me it's more of the Tone and Mix that makes a riff heavy and not so much the tuning, though tuning can still play a role in making something sound heavier. i'd say focus more on the bass and having that metalic clankiness also just that body yet scratchiness with the guitar chugs. so yes, these sounded great in the higher tunings so long as you have that element down. the saw is the law just sounded amazing with how full it was with that low end punch and growl..
Architect sounds like if Iron Maiden got their act together. Rip and Tear sounds good in any tuning. It definitely highlights the weakness of the riff when it doesn't sound anywhere near as good in the higher tuning. Like you said, good riffs work in pretty much any tuning.
Is E Standard still heavy in 2024?
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yes
Sylosis is THE answer to this question
I liked it!
@@thegodk1ller Except Sylosis started downtuning to C# standard
Yes it is
Carcosa in E Standard is cursed.. thank you
You love it haha :)
Hahahaha
lol 😆
I actually thought it sounded better lol
|Still brutal
Next: E standard riffs tuned higher
Ukecore
🤯🤯🤯🤯
I’ve tried this! Played a bunch of thrash stuff and it was…interesting
Vektor has entered the chat
@@chrisfalk9762was just about to mention them!
The Architects one sounded like a power metal riff
It reminded me a bit of old CKY.
@@Waas oh wow.. you are right!
I personally thought the higher tuning made it sound kind of Proggy
Here to put my spin on this too: It was literally like Dream Theatre in 4/4
It sounded like symphony x
I think a critical point here is that the tone seems to me like it's set up for super low tunings, and sounds a bit too smooth in E standard. Could handle a bit more dirt with E standard.
this
Yes. Honestly a noob move in the video.
Isn’t that the point of the video though? He’s not necessarily making the video for it to sound good because that wouldn’t be a fair comparison. That would be like saying “let’s compare this apple to that apple but I’ve modified the other apple to make it taste better anyway”.
Right, the lower the tuning, the less gain needed. But in higher tunings it benefits from more distortion
Oh yeah
Higher tunings thrive on dirtier, gnarlier production. The reason why a lot of modern metal sounds so clean is because the tuning is so low that you wouldn't be able to hear it on otherwise dirtier production.
Basically this shows that Thrash metal is still everywhere in the genre and it’s just the tuning that changed.
These are all amazing
Plenty of bands still ripping Slayer riffs from two decades ago
00000000@@MacDaddyBlack546
"We're bringing 80's trash metal back" ahh comment
Thrash but also crossover, most mosh parts are just hc now
That happens when all the impact relies in the lowest tune you can drop your strings (till they beg for mercy. What a helpless picture!)...
Rip and Tear sounds very cool in that tuning surprisingly.
Original sounded gnarly like a chainsaw dismembering demons, E standard sounds like the Doomslayer trims his beard with an electric shaver.
Rip and Tear in E Standard places it right back in the original Doom games. Feels like a coming full circle moment, quite honestly.
IIRC in Mick's behind the scenes of making Doom 2016, he discussed starting in E, then got a 7 string, then thought he needed lower... So found a 9 string. Dude's a madman
I have to disagree, however the Architects sounds just as good in Es
I agree - really caught off guard by how much I enjoyed it!
1:30 Doomsday (Architects)
2:02 A Plague (Carcosa)
2:31 Holy Roller (Spiritbox)
2:58 Gored (Loathe)
3:25 Rip & Tear (Mick Gordon)
4:09 Icarus Lives (Periphery)
4:35 The Saw Is The Law (Whitechapel)
"a good riff is a good riff and it basically works in any tuning" - AMEN!
Modern Metal in E Standard mostly sounds like royalty free electric guitar tracks that you hear in the background of pro wrestling top 10 videos
Cuz most of bands today lack creativity so they have to drop 123 steps
Painfully accurate
@@exmarinplorer This guy gets it.
Sylosis - let me introduce myself!
I think of some retro ish game
Rip & Tear actually reminds me of early thrash which does work considering a lot of Ultimate Doom’s soundtrack was midi versions of popular thrash, groove, and grunge before ‘93
This version sounds like Slayer
I know theyre not "modern metal," but Opeth (when they were still death metal at least) record in E standard. The album Deliverance is a great showcase of how heavy standard tuning can be, Master's Apprentices in particular a favourite of mine.
A lot of heaviness comes from the dissonance of the locrian scale and the Byzantine scale which are used a heck of a lot in metal so the interval between notes, these scales have a lot of semitone intervals compared to more traditional music
Same with a lot of DImmu Borgir's work. Honestly, I think they leave more room in the mix for the bass than modern mega-drop-tuned bands do, and you end up with something super heavy without really needing to detune at all. For my own stuff, you can call it laziness (it is), but I feel like I have the most fun and write the heaviest/coolest riffs when I'm hovering around drop D. No long scale lengths, hyper thick and hard to find strings, super tight pickups, or crazy eq-ing needed. Just a bone-stock HSS Strat with 10s - so simple lol
Great pick. I love the closing section of Deliverance's title track, where the one guitar plays a high ringing melodic riff, and the rest of the band plays a low heavy syncopated riff. I think having the contrast in pitch and rhythm makes the lower part feel even heavier.
@@harku123 tbh imo most of opeths "heaviness" isn't the same heavy as those bands. It's more of an evil ot dissonant type sound. Dropping the moors riffs won't make it that much heavier to me for example. But masters apprentice on the other hand is a riff that gets "heavier" when tuned lower since it's closer to how other bands make "heavy"
@@AI-ke9pp I agree, if you have riffs that incorporate chords or just multiple strings used simultaneously, it gets mushy at lower tunings but single string riffs benefit a lot from low tuning which is where meshuggah gets it right in that sense. Another way music can be heavy is for it to be groovy and low rumbling or bassy. Masters apprentice would be pretty cool at a lower tuning I'm sure just like you said, the moor is so chord heavy and dissonant that running it lower than maybe drop d or c would only be detrimental.
Periphery, Mick Gordon and Architects go traditional Prog! Those sounded awesome! Doomsday particularly sounded like something DGM would make.
Ive never subscribed to the idea that lower = heavier, I’ve always believed that having a higher tuning lets you *hear* the riffs better, and that can make a lot of songs heavy on it’s own
Icarus lives sounded pretty sick in E
It was already a Hard Rock riff tuned down, so of course it was gonna sound good in standard tuning.
all these years later and Icarus Lives still goes so hard, in any tuning. it's like seeing an old friend
depends on how the riff is written. A Plague, Doomsday, and even Rip & Tear all made it work, but stuff like Holy Roller and the loathe riff i cant remember the name of just...needs the lower tuning for that riff to sound "good". Not saying it sounds bad, infact it sounds pretty good! Just...better lower.
I actually think Holy Roller sounded great in standard. All of these sounded entirely workable in standard though.
Agree. But I'd add that if we'd heard all those riffs in standard first we'd probably think they were heavy.
holy roller and gored sound like gojira in this tuning
If these songs were made for standard tuning, chances are there'd be some production tricks to make the final result sound darker.
Completely agree here!
Standard and Drop D have a cut and punch that you absolutely don't get in lower tunings, for example "Painkiller" by Judas Priest. I often play baritone and bass vi, but I'll never give up regular guitars in standard-ish tunings like Eb standard and Drop D. Also worth trying is C# standard or C standard with your regular string set on your normal scale guitar (I think of it as "Iommi/Pike tuning"). Very loose fretboard, sounds cool, makes you play differently.
i keep praying this for years: drop B is the perfect middle ground. you got the low growl, but you get so much punch (more than C imo)
Can confirm, the tunings I use most frequently are Eb standard, Drop C#, and C# standard, and the amount of versatility I get with just those three tunings is amazing
@@MrMockigtonyes, drop B is goated
I'd also argue that the quintessential huge, heavy power chord (think Rammstein) sounds best in Drop C and up. Anything lower and you start to lose the clarity and note separation, and the impact diminishes.
C# standard is the heaviest tuning invented by man, full stop
Architects in higher tuning = prog? XD
Architects was always prog leaning, no one payed enough attention to see it.
Architects in higher tuning = Sylosis
I like how "Doomsday" has instantly become "Birthday "
Now you understand. 😂
Need a full veersion of Rip and Tear. NOW!!! My ears, after listening to that tuning cannot gloss over the fact that how cool, and how different it sounds! I would really appreciate a full version of that, as it sounds so damn cool!
The technique to be heavy in E is a little different. A lot of those songs treat their low strings like a bass player would, really hammering them with no palm muting. E doesn't really give the same kind of punch, it needs palm muting and chords to be heavy.
So the reason these all have such a different vibes is because of the physics of harmonics. I can’t remember the specific term but once you reach a certain depth chords start to sound less like chords and more like clashing single notes. And that’s a key part of a lot of the super low tuned modern riffs, playing them higher literally changes the way we perceive the relationship between the notes.
The harmonics overlap and make it sound muddy.
I believe the term you’re referring to is low interval limits
alot of 7 and 8 string riffs use less chords and more open notes though
I think that, what actually makes a song heavy, isn't necessarily the guitar but the drums
It's actually the bass guitar that makes rhythm guitar heavy. If your bass tone is shit then the guitar suffers
Composition and arrangement
And bass
2:13 Haken - Nil by Mouth
I can kind of hear it, yeh
Holy shit haken mentioned. Best band ever btw right next to periphery
Train of thought pfp as well holy based
to me, the riffs work in their tunings and not E standard because they're built around having those lower notes - they jump up to higher strings for power chords, and that gives it a clearer sound, rather than being muddy if they'd played like it was in E standard. i think Rip & Tear works better than Carcosa because it's tuned higher originally. for a different framing - imagine Metallica's "The Shortest Straw" on a 9 string versus Rob Scallon's "Envy" on a 6 string. the first ends up being muddier than an amateur rugby field after it's rained and still played the match, while the second lacks the oomph of the low notes and sounds hollow by comparison.
interesting experiment, all in all
How seamless was that transition from "Rip and tear" to "Icarus lives"? Smooth as butter.
Sometimes when we discuss tone we can get caught up in the nuances(gain level/amp type/etc) as opposed to using the word in the context of speech. Something like this really shows that the bright/sharp sound of standard really pushes those power/thrash metal vibes while the same riffs in the lower tunings evoke groove/percussive feelings. Context matters. Awesome work!
My low frequency hearing loss enjoyed this, though I wouldn't mind hearing them in C# standard lolz
I still say C# standard sounds best to my ear, and Sabbath is heavy.
Also, so much of the Lamb of God stuff is in drop D, so "heavy" isn't all about tuning.
LoG has some of the nastiest and sickest riff and it's all in the groove and effects/pedals/cabinets/speakers. Get a good sounding sound and play that shit tight and right, it fucks in all the right ways.
My favorite is 7 string standard but half step down (BbEbAbDbGbBbEb), because it lends itself to insanely heavy riffs, is useful for choruses (especially in more exotic keys like Db or Ab)-yet is not so low as to be muddy. The 8 string extension of this CAN also be useful (especially if you are using the guitar for low end and synths/keyboards for the middle and high end), however downtuning alone doesn’t make riffs heavier. Clever use of music theory, especially combining rhythmic emphasis with dissonant notes does add A LOT of heaviness to riffs though (nu metal (and some heavier djent/prog-metal like Meshuggah) does this REALLY well by building riffs around implied atonal chord progressions)…
Iommi writes some of the heaviest riffs to ever exist and he played in C and E all of the time early on.
Right on
Sabbath is indeed heavy. Influenced by the blues and low octaves. If you haven't listened to Stoned Jesus yet I think you'd dig em.
I been kinda liking D standard tuning. 25.5 scale guitar. Using Ernie Ball hybrid set, 10 for three low strings, 9 gauge for three high strings.
I didn’t even recognise the loathe song at first, and it’s one of my favourite songs by them
I'm a single coil Tele player who mostly plays between E standard to Drop D. I think E standard tuning for guitar is somewhat arbitrary and lower tunings bring out tonal character out of the instrument that seems impossible in E standard. It is no wonder that 60s rock / blues rock / psychedelic music used at least Eb or D. The deeper tuning with distortion sounds better most of the time, not just in metal. People like deep sounds. E standard is best for clinky or more focused tones, like playing fast chords or funky riffs with clarity and definition (RATM would be a perfect example for not-so-downtuned, heavy but funky riffage).
Eb and D are the sweet spot
When I played a lot more (need to pick it back up), I wrote a lot of my own stuff. Occasionally I'd use drop C, maybe drop B like Mark Tremonti does. Typically though, I stayed in drop D or standard minus half a step. Always sounded awesome, intricate, and heavy.
This was a good video. Thank you.
I liked them all. Particularly, because I could hear the bass and drums better.
Like crystal clear clarity.
Thanks, now I have to admit I'm old af. I couldn't give less of a shit about most of the bands the riffs are from, yet these E Standard versions make me suddenly want to listen to those songs.
Same
This is one of the only one of these types of videos where i wasnt disappointed in the song choice. You have great sensibilities.
okay but rip and tear is still heavy af
That “drop D” comment really took me back about 30 years 😂
“Holy Roller” in E standard sounds like something from “St. Anger” 😬
@@jdhh1801 my mind went to the song Frantic. Cool thing about music is we all experience it differently.
@@mopsandmuscles7855 the part at 02:42 rather reminded me of All Nightmare Long
The power chord progression in homy roller gives off heavy megadeth vibes
I think it really depends on who mixes it. It's a pretty raw sounding mix, especially those drums. Great playing all around too.
It sounds good but different. It has a slight different character. If I play in E standard, I change the tone settings on my amp or on my equalizer and reduce the higher frequencies and push the lower frequencies, depending what song it is. I like to be versatile and some guitar tunings can be very inspiring to try out different ideas. A tuning in g-g-d-g-b-b was something I tryed for some time...
Whitechapel tuned up sounds like power metal, which was unexpected.
I normally tune in Drop B, but recently have been coming back to E standard and D standard with some of my guitars. It's good to change tunings and practice and experiment with various tunings. IMHO
Would've been helpful to hear a bit of the originals too. I didn't know any of these songs haha
the loathe one was sick
They all sounded great! I like modern metal but some times the low tuning just sounds muddy.
This
Really cool video. I'm reminded of a death metal guitarist who's name escapes me saying that for him, heaviness is in the harshness of the guitar not in the register. That aggression you hear in the higher regesters is a big part of why I think some classic metal still hits hard. That being said, I do love me some chonky low tuned riffs.
With Spiritbox I started hitting around me in the air wondering where the damn fly was
Listen to metal beyond C# is like peferring bbls over normal butts
Rip & Tear in standard tuning sounds like it would be at home on the original Doom games. Nice.
My theory (okay not mine but I agree) is that sound at different frequencies is experienced and perceived differently.
Related idea: percussion is just regular sounds on a very, very long timescale.
I usually play Icarus Lives like this and, moreso, on an acoustic, so thank you for validation.
Icarus Lives almost had a Porcupine Tree "Deadwing" type of vibe going on in E standard. I love it.
Higher tunings at least to me have more attack and more clarity than lower ones where as lower ones sound bigger and I guess you might say more grounded? A bit like you said a good riff is a good riff no matter the tuning but the right tuning can augment its best qualities and make it the best it can be.
Some of them still were awesome on E standard. Rip and Tear and the Loathe ones especially. The Architects sounded daft in E 😂
I have a guitar which allows me to change tunings on the fly electronically (Peavey AT-200). I come up with riffs in E standard, then when I find one I like, I experiment with different drop tunings to see how it feels.
Imagine writing such great riffs they hold up in other tunings! I think that would be the guitarists dream kinda
The Saw is the Law sounds dope in E-Standard actually
I've been using E Standard for Drone-Doom Metal for years. I use a lot of inverted 5th chords, and roll the tone knob way back. Use a Big Muff or EQD Acapulco Gold, too.
sounds great but main thing you have is a dialed in perfect sound and create tone in your hands that we all strive for
That would be interesting hearing portal tuned up to E.
00:00 All I can think about is the skit on Psychostick's album, _IV: Revenge of the Vengeance_ , that plays before _So. Heavy._ ( _H-Flat_ ).
I discovered that E tuning creates open chords in the A minor/C major scales, which correspond to the white keys on the piano.
Just like how it doesn’t make sense to only play the white keys for every song, it’s not practical to stay in tinny E tuning and never go lower (one or two steps maximum: anything lower loses tonality)
Gonna need a full version on that Doomsday one! I get why they tuned down for the original but that riff DEFINITELY holds up
Make a part 2! Need for more riffs!
I like to try and still write really heavy riffs in E standard and am proud of some of the ones I've had. Some of my favourite bands that are very heavy use E, and i have a fondness for it for that. I also just prefer to be in E for all other styles too
I played through the entire DOOM franchise for the first time ever this October, and I've always thought the soundtracks of each game were something of greatness on its own, but actually playing the game with the music behind it? Incredible. 10/10 would recommend. Fantastic video, cool hearing them in this tuning.
2:30 Tune it to C standard or C# and it kinda somewhat sounds like a Bolt Thrower song.
3:24 Add some gallops in there and it sounds like a Testament song.
this is so fun to watch! u should make a series of these
I don’t know any of these bands or songs but that made this video that much better for me lol.
It really just sounds like a collection of riffs in standard tuning. Nothing sounds wrong or off.
Always odd to see some stuff in different tunings, though yeah specific riff made for it's og tuning kinda always usually sounds more fitting.
Now there's E0 tuned 42" sub-bass guitar, that would be fun to see.
These all sounded cool. More bass on these tracks might be able to account for the "missing" low end that is naturally present on the original recordings. Also, maybe tuning down would still be cool, just a full step instead of 55 steps.
When I’m lazy I just play riffs I want to learn in e standard or drop d and I feel no different. And when I make music with my friend we play in e most of the time despite me owning a 7 and 8 string guitar. E is fun!
My favorite tuning is going up from E to F. I think only Vektor really used that tuning but it sounds so good
Love your vids Pete! I've gotten into playing some metal recently, and all I've got's just a shitty single coil Stratocaster that I kept on E standard at all times.
Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia album by Dimmu Borgir blew my mind when i found out that album was recorded in E Standard tuning
Hey man, this is a strange request, but I haven't found anyone who's done a video of it yet, so I am sure you could start a trend... Anyway, my idea is Drop E tuning, but the low E is just the standard E with the other strings all tuned up a whole step. As a guitarist you know how much different the riffing feeling is in drop tuning, it's fun to have that with the clear tone of the standard tuning range. Try it. Lighter strings might help for it, but you probably already knew that.
I had to look up the original riffs since I don't follow modern metal, and there were two, "Doomsday" and "Rip and Tear," that I thought were better in standard tuning. Very cool!
I play a lot of these in drop A on a 7-string, which is a ways off for most, and they sound great. I'm actually appreciating having E-standard available on the 7 after years of downtuning everything.
They're not super heavy overall and not really metal, but 311 has some pretty nasty, chuggy, high gain riffs, especially on Soundsystem and From Chaos. I actually don't know a song by them in any other tuning, just E standard. Ever since, i'm also very careful to test riffs and really find where they groove into. Like, Pantera started in E standard but really came into with their own unique low tuning
Why is “modern metal” always a euphemism for metalcore
Becaus modern low tuned metal is/was dominated by metalcore... and djent.
Because modern metal is just 00s metalcore on baritone/extended range guitar instead of drop C
Because metalcore has had the most mainstream appeal in the past couple decades and the vast majority of modern metal fits into metalcore. Extreme metal bands are not as popular obviously and they tend to fit into specific subgenres rather than generally calling themselves "modern metal"
Every generation has its normie trash genre of metal. For us it's core, for the millenials it was nu, for the X-ers it was hair.
@@fishactivation5087 Metalcore is very diverse genre. Lot of it is very far from "normie". But you probably mean poppy melodic metalcore.
They just became early 00s Metalcore/Deathcore
Nah. 1st one was symphonyX/dream theater-ish, 2nd one sounded like Havok around the time of Unnatural Selection, 3rd one is a weird St Anger Death magnetic mix, 4 is a sound file from the original Doom, rip&tear is Slayer-ish, icarus lives is some sort of groove metal and the whitechapel one is perhaps Mastodon-ish
The riffs I was already very acquainted with sounded a bit strange, but still good in E standard. The riffs I’ve never heard before or have only heard a few times sounded great.
I gotta say that hearing Spiritbox in E standard is truly something my brain was not ready for lmao
Haha just keeping you on your toes 😜
great video concept--had lots of fun watching!!! And yes, tuning can definitely give a song a particular vibe--especially low tunings--that high tunings just can't seem to replicate to the same degree. Of course, I am a child of the nu-metal era where every rock and metal band was downtuning, so I am naturally predisposed to those lower notes, lol.
Riffs start at 1:30
It seems like generally, the melodic stuff still works really well. The beginning riff of the Architects song sounds like it would fit in a power prog band's work... it's quite pretty and sounds like it's the one that works best out off the lot. The Periphery song works really well too... I can see that riff within the context of a groovy math rock/mathcore song. The songs are still generally heavy, but it feels like their genres change.
The first one sounded like the stuff Dance Gavin Dance does 😅😂 very bluesy, jazzy SWANCORE type technicality.
Got to say, I'm a fan of those Carcosa and Spiritbox riffs. Wicked job, dude! Awesome to listen to as always.
Some of those riffs can actually benefit a lot from being tuned higher, maybe not all the way up to E standard. That Carcosa riff is a perfect example, it's a really fun and catchy riff, but when you listen to the original it gets lost in the mix because there is way too much low end
honestly this video needed to have the original lick played first and then played again with the standard tuning, would've shown the contrast better I think? part 2?
I love messing around in e standard and adding thr 7th/8th string for some accents and a 2nd lower or added breakdown. I write too fast and it's kinda djent and thrash with a little melody so it works fun. drop a and D standard on the 7 and 8 string respectively
Pete uploads.. i click.. it's that simple.
for me it's more of the Tone and Mix that makes a riff heavy and not so much the tuning, though tuning can still play a role in making something sound heavier. i'd say focus more on the bass and having that metalic clankiness also just that body yet scratchiness with the guitar chugs. so yes, these sounded great in the higher tunings so long as you have that element down. the saw is the law just sounded amazing with how full it was with that low end punch and growl..
Coole Riffs! Great playing Pete!
Thanks! :)
Icarus Lives just sounds like A Life Once Lost and I love it.
Architect sounds like if Iron Maiden got their act together.
Rip and Tear sounds good in any tuning.
It definitely highlights the weakness of the riff when it doesn't sound anywhere near as good in the higher tuning. Like you said, good riffs work in pretty much any tuning.
Just discovered your channel, love your content man !🤘
Hey thank you so much! Welcome! :)